[Good evening. from the studios of KBBF, the first bilingual community radio station in the United States, this is your host, Nora Villanueva, welcoming you to this edition of “Classical Tones,” your program of classical music “with a Latin connection.” Every week at this time we explore the musical culture of Spain and Latin America.]

The Coro Hispano de San Francisco was founded in 1975 to celebrate the bicentenary of the Mission San Francisco. It’s a community chorus of the Spanish-speaking in the Bay Area, open to all with the requisite skills and a love of the chorus’ diverse repertoire, which includes choral and vocal music from all eras and from all parts of the Spanish-speaking world. We’ll hear an example from 17th-century Mexico, “Digan, Digan” by Antonio de Salazar. The Director is Juan Pedro Gaffney.

Perhaps the most famous of all of Felipe Pedrell’s students was Manuel de Falla who was inspired by Pedrell to study traditional Spanish music, especially flamenco. You can hear the result in this suite of three dances from his ballet “The Three-Cornered Hat,” based on a novel of the same name by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. The “Neighbors’ Dance” is based on the seguidilla, a Gypsy dance from Castile. The “Miller’s Dance” is a farruca, a form of flamenco music. And the source for the “Final Dance” is the jota, which is typically from Aragon but can also be found in many regions of Spain. We’ll hear the Simon Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela directed by Eduardo Mata.

Dances from the Ballet “The Three-Cornered Hat” by Manuel de Falla were performed by the Simon Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela directed by Eduardo Mata. And we heard them here on the Classical Tones program where we enjoy classical music “with a Latin connection” from the studios of KBBF in Santa Rosa, California.

Claude Debussy wrote his “Images pour Orchestre” in 1912. It’s a good example of his impressionistic style. Debussy actually hated the term “impressionism” but he is perhaps the composer most associated with it. It is music that focuses on suggestion and atmosphere, conveying the moods and emotions rather than a detailed tone-picture. The first section, called “Gigues” begins with a solo by the oboe d’amore. The second section has three parts called “In the streets and byways”, “The fragrance of the night” and “The morning of a festival day”. The final section is called “Round Dances of Springtime”. We’ll hear the Orquestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by the Spanish pianist and conductor Ataulfo Argenta.

The Filipino composer Federico Elizalde had a close connection to Spain. As a young man he moved to Europe and during his years in Madrid he became a leading interpreter of the music of Manuel de Falla. He also fought in the Spanish Civil War under Franco and after the war was captain of the Philippines national shooting team. Before that, in 1943, he wrote a Violin Concerto while he was under house arrest in France during the German occupation. We’ll hear a performance recorded in 1947 with Christian Ferras as the violin soloist and the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gaston Poulet.

You are listening to Classical Tones, the program of classical music “with a Latin connection” from the studios of KBBF in Santa Rosa, California. Where we just heard the Violin Concerto of Federico Elizalde performed by Christian Ferras on the violin accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gaston Poulet.

The Mexican tenor Carlos Montemayor was a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, political analyst, social activist in defense of indigenous communities, and promoter of contemporary literature written in indigenous languages. If you search for his name on Amazon.com you can find many of his books on those subjects. Although he was only an amateur singer he recorded several albums. Here’s an example, Carlos Montemayor singing the song “Volveré” (I will return) by the Mexican composer María Grever, accompanied by Antonio Bravo on the piano.

Aníbal Troilo was a popular Argentine tango musician in the middle of the 20th century. One of the members of his orquesta típica during the period 1939 to 1944 was Astor Piazzolla, who later went on to become the leading exponent of the Nuevo Tango. When Troilo died in 1975, Piazzolla wrote a 4-movement “Suite Troileana” in his memory. Here’s an arrangement of it for two guitars by the Brazilian guitarist Sérgio Assad who is accompanied on this recording by his brother Odair.

[I want to thank you for tuning in to “Classical Tones”, the classical music show from the studios of KBBF. We’re here every week with two hours of the best music and musicians from Spain and Latin America. This is your host Nora Villanueva, hoping to be with you again next week.]